On July 21, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," two of the most anticipated movies of this summer, were released in theaters worldwide. At first glance, these films have little in common, but internet users found it amusing to see them released on the same day. The films were actively discussed on social media platforms, where numerous jokes and memes were dedicated to both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer."
We have analyzed the number of mentions of the films "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in Twitch chats. On average, the popularity of "Barbie" was significantly higher — the difference in the number of mentions was sometimes five to ten times greater. This is not surprising, as "Barbie" is a cult toy brand known worldwide. A film about the beautiful doll gave rise to many memes and jokes. On the other hand, "Oppenheimer" has a much more serious tone and is intended for a more mature audience: emotional contrast between the pictures was one of the main reasons for giggles.
The hype around both cinema pictures led users to coin the term "Barbenheimer" to refer to humorous collages and collaborations involving both films. The most enterprising individuals even released Barbenheimer merchandise — contrasting t-shirts dyed in "glamorous" pink and "depressive" black colors.
"Barbie" was mentioned approximately 52.9K times in Twitch chats on its release day, while "Oppenheimer" enjoyed 'only' 16.8K mentions. Interestingly, "Oppenheimer" only managed to surpass "Barbie" in this metric in early May when the movie poster with Cillian Murphy (the lead actor) was shown.
The word "Barbenheimer" shows an interesting trend. In May, it was hardly encountered in Twitch chats, in June, the number of mentions started going into the tens, and in July, it reached the hundreds. On the release day, "Barbenheimer" was written in Twitch chats over 2K times.
Comparison of Dynamics with Other Movies
It is interesting to compare the dynamics of mentions of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" on Twitch with the dynamics of other popular movies released this year. For example, the new "Mission Impossible" with Tom Cruise was hardly discussed on Twitch, and the number of mentions barely exceeded a thousand messages even on the release day. In the case of the fourth installment of "John Wick," the number of mentions increased almost threefold in a week, from 2.5K to 7K messages.
Computer-animated "Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse" was much more actively discussed by Twitch users, as it is closely related to gaming topics. In the week leading up to its release, the number of mentions on the platform increased from 12.7K to 18.4K messages. The dynamics of mentions of the Spiderman movie are similar to that of "John Wick," although there was a significant jump after six days, primarily related to the box office results of its first week and the film's release in other countries.
The situation with "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" is different: these films do not have the smooth dynamics that other movies have. "Barbie" can even be called "explosive," as the number of mentions of the film in Twitch chats in the week before its release sharply increased from 15K to 52.9K messages. This is a significant jump that indicates the hype surrounding the movie. Furthermore, in the last days before the release, the word "Barbenheimer" went viral, which increased the mentions of both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer."
The simultaneous release of "Barbie" and the emergence of the Barbenheimer meme helped "Oppenheimer" increase its recognition and online discussions. Ultimately, it almost equaled Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse in terms of these metrics. And Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes in the world, with a very strong and recognizable brand.